


Persuasion

by TJ_Dragonblade



Category: Saiyuki Gaiden
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-12-04
Updated: 2005-12-04
Packaged: 2017-10-29 01:18:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/314253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TJ_Dragonblade/pseuds/TJ_Dragonblade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tenpou vs. Konzen on the subject of play.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Persuasion

**Author's Note:**

> Started: 8/3/05  
> Drafted: 8/12/05

"Ten-chan!! Ken-niisan!!" Goku bolted up from his seat on the floor of Konzen's office and barreled into Kenren, who stumbled back with a grunt at the weight of the boy-plus-shackles. "Whatcha doin'? Can we play? I'm bored!"

Tenpou laughed lightly, edging through the doorway around the two and giving Goku's hair the slightest ruffle in passing. "Quite certainly we can, Goku--that's why we're here, after all. What do you want to play?"

"Mahjong?" Kenren offered, righting himself and grinning down at the boy. "Poker? Blackjack?" He flashed a quick wink at Tenpou's vaguely disapproving frown and continued. "Hide and seek? Tag? Baseball?"

"Baseball!" Goku crowed, and his eyes danced eagerly.

Behind the desk, Konzen twitched. "Not in here, you don't."

"But Konzen--"

"NO."

Hands in his labcoat pockets, Tenpou shifted, turned, casually leveled his smile at the blond. "Why ever not?"

The red stamp hit the paper with just a little more force than necessary. "After what you three did to my office the last time?"

Tenpou blinked thoughtfully behind his glasses. "Anhh. Yes, the window..."

"I had to explain it to that old hag--"

"Aww, Kanzeon's favorite nephew got in trouble," Kenren interrupted, voice ripe with false sympathy. "Did she turn you over her knee, give you a good spanking?" He flashed a lascivious grin, as though to suggest that such a thing should be enjoyed.

"She _laughed_." Konzen refused to rise to the bait, but the down-turned corners of his mouth pulled lower and a hint of annoyance creased his brow. "She already finds too much amusement at my expense--I'm not about to give her any more."

"Very well then," Tenpou conceded mildly. At Goku's crestfallen look, he added, "We'll simply have to take it outside."

"Yeah!" Goku agreed, perking right back up.

Konzen sighed in a way which conveyed quite clearly that he found the entire conversation tedious, then opened the top drawer of his desk. He pulled out a small key, rose stiffly, and stalked over to a large cabinet against the wall. Retrieving the bat and ball from where he'd locked them away after last time, he thrust them out toward Goku. "Don't break anything."

Goku took them eagerly enough, though a faint shadow dimmed the brightness of his eyes. "Ne, Konzen...you wanna come play too?" The hesitation when he asked made it clear that he expected 'no' for an answer.

Konzen resumed his seat and delivered true to form. "I'm busy." The red stamp pressed briefly to another sheet of paper.

Goku faltered for a second, then squared his shoulders, mouth set in a determined line. "But you're always busy, Konzen! C'mon, just for a little bit..."

Tenpou and Kenren exchanged a lifting of eyebrows, impressed and surprised by the challenge to Konzen's refusal. Konzen, however, only made an irritated sound and glared through the fall of his hair until Goku wilted.

"Ah, come on, Goku--we'll have more fun without Stuffy-Britches anyway." Kenren settled a consoling hand on the boy's shoulder and steered him to the doorway, casting Tenpou a meaningful glance as he walked out.

Tenpou waited 'til they'd gone, then crossed his arms and sighed at Konzen. It was a carefully un-dramatic sigh, tempered to be excused as natural but just insistent enough that the blond could not in good conscience ignore it.

Ever stubborn, Konzen made the effort regardless, but Tenpou shifted his posture the tiniest bit and sighed that unobtrusive sigh again most insistently and Konzen's seal met its target with vicious force. A swift and vehement curse followed as the scarlet rectangle inked slightly crooked. The blond slammed his stamp to the inkpad and glared up at the marshal. "Dammit, Tenpou--what do you want?"

Tenpou deflected the hostility with a vague smile, one shoulder shrugging slightly. "Really, Konzen, would it be so difficult for you to play with the child?"

Konzen tilted his chin with a sharp jerk and gave an irritated hiss, eyes closed and brow drawn in clear aggravation. "Play is for children and the simple-minded."

Tenpou blithely ignored the implicit insult and simply countered, "Devotion to a job so tedious as this, with no time taken out for play--it makes one's existence rather dull, don't you think?"

"No, I do not." Konzen's fingers clenched on the grip of his seal; his other hand flung a tightly emphatic gesture at the neat stacks of paper piling on either edge of his desk. "I am excessively _busy_ , Tenpou. Surely you can see this. Let that idiot Kenren entertain the boy--I've got more important things to do!"

Tenpou's hands had found their way to his labcoat pockets again, and he swayed idly back and forth on his feet while he answered. "It's only ink and paper, Konzen. Really, do you think it will up and fly away if you leave it untended a little while?"

The vein at Konzen's temple twitched beneath that golden hair. "I haven't got time for this kind of nonsense!"

"'A little nonsense now and then/Is relished by the wisest men'," Tenpou quoted in return, lightly sing-song and completely unruffled.(1)

The vein throbbed. "Tenpou--"

"Tell me this, if you would, please," Tenpou interrupted, changing tactics abruptly. "Why is it so vital that all these documents be reviewed and stamped this very instant?"

Konzen's brow drew down in exasperated tension. "It's my _duty_ to see that all paperwork is processed in a timely fashion."

The tone of voice suggested he was an imbecile for even asking such a question, but Tenpou remained unfazed. "Mmh. Yes. Do you really think, though, that anyone besides yourself cares whether all this is done today, tomorrow, next week, even?"

"Next week is not timely."

"'Timely' is a rather subjective term, don't you think? Particularly here, when nothing ever changes..."

The aggravation heating Konzen's face was more than apparent in his voice. "If I don't review this all now--"

"Then what?" Tenpou fixed Konzen with eyes much too sharp for his benignly-woolly expression; there was an edge in his voice to match. "Do tell me, please--what great calamitous disaster will come crashing down upon us if the great Konzen Douji spares an afternoon for his ward, hmm?"

Konzen's eyes narrowed in fury; he opened his mouth to retort and paused, anger mounting as no ready answer occurred to him.

"There, you see?" The edge had vanished from Tenpou's voice and gaze, leaving them bright once again. "No horrible consequence but for the bruise to your sense of duty. And what is that, really, when compared to the happiness you could bring to Goku in exchange for it?"

Konzen growled--actually growled--and slammed his hands down on the desk, standing so abruptly that his chair toppled over backwards with a dull heavy thud. "Get out! Just get the hell out!"

Tenpou smiled cheerfully in the face of Konzen's wrath. "Oh, quite certainly, yes. You'll come along too, won't you?"

"Of course I'm coming too! You aren't going to leave me alone otherwise!"

Tenpou's smile brightened, if possible, even further. "Mmh. I'm quite glad to see you being so reasonable, Konzen!"

"... _Idiot_. Gah!" Konzen rounded the desk and stalked for the door, the long white skirts of his tunic fluttering about his legs as he passed Tenpou. "Just stop your damned nagging!" Despite the hostile demeanor, however, there was a faint spark of sullen gratitude warming his eyes behind the glare.

Beaming at nothing and no one in particular, Tenpou followed him out.

**Author's Note:**

> (1) Tenpou offers a pearl of Wonka-wisdom (and that which inspired this piece in the first place), as heard in _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)_.


End file.
